This present disclosure relates to methods for a marketplace of interactive live streaming multimedia overlays.
The online video industry has grown rapidly since YouTube made it simple to share online videos in 2005. Netflix introduced its streaming video service in 2007, followed by Hulu in 2008. All three services focused on pre-recorded video, also known as Video On Demand (“VOD”), until YouTube introduced YouTube Live in 2008. It marked the first easily accessible implementation of a live streaming video service.
Similarly, video games have evolved from single or multiplayer experiences shared around a single TV to complicated, internet-based multiplayer games that allow hundreds of thousands of players to participate in shared gaming experiences. Fans of video games historically used magazines such as GamePro Magazine to stay abreast of new game releases, uncover otherwise difficult to find game secrets, and to learn how optimize their gameplay. Eventually the medium was replaced by YouTube channels dedicated to video game content.
The popularity of online video game content lead to the founding of a new class of Streaming Services: Twitch, which was founded in 2011, and YouTube Gaming which came online in 2015. These services allowed players to directly broadcast their own gaming experiences to the world. Streaming Services differ from the aforementioned Netflix, Hulu, and YouTube products in that they focus on streaming live video, as opposed to pre-recorded VOD content. Today Twitch serves over 170 million visitors every month, and unlike YouTube's VOD product, which primarily serves short-form video, the average Twitch visitor views over an hour of streaming content. For the purpose of the present invention, the term Streaming Services refers to one or more services designed to stream live video content via a digital channel including, but not limited to, Twitch, YouTube Gaming, Mixer, and Facebook Live.
These extended viewing times are enabled by video game fans' voracious appetite for video game content, and by Streaming Services such as Twitch or YouTube Gaming providing tools to enable users broadcasting their games, the Streamers, to monetize the time they spend streaming their game sessions. These tools include allowing Viewers to sign up for a monthly subscription to the channel of a specific Streamers whose personality or gameplay they enjoy, a chat panel for viewers to chat with each other and the Streamer, and an extensive application programming interface (API) for developers to build applications that interface with the Streaming Services. Many Streamers are able to make a substantial living through Streaming Services and the ecosystems they have created.
Due to the instantaneous and live nature of video streamed to Streaming Services, it is not possible to edit a video before it goes live using traditional video editing software. To overcome this limitation broadcasting software, such as Open Broadcaster Software (“OBS”), has introduced the ability to use Overlays, which are graphical elements that are added to the Streamer's video immediately prior to the video being encoded and sent to Streaming Services for Viewer consumption. Overlays can consist of static or dynamic images, and they can be stored locally or hosted on a server.
Furthermore, Streaming Service APIs have created an ecosystem of third-party tools that help Streamers monetize their channels beyond Viewer subscriptions. Key features developed by third party services include facilitating donations (a primary source of income for Streamers), Multistreaming Services that broadcast a single Streamer's video feed to multiple simultaneous Streaming Services, chat bots that help Streamers engage with and manage their Viewers through the chat pane, and custom Overlays. Said custom Overlays can provide static images, such as decorative video borders, animated graphics that respond in real time to the actions of the Viewers or the game.
An example of a real-time alert includes an animated alert appearing in the Streamer's video feed when a Viewer subscribes, follows, or donates to the Streamer. This allows the Streamer to easily see Viewer monetization events as they occur. It also gives the Viewer a chance at notoriety as their name is displayed in front of potentially millions of other Viewers.
Another example of a real-time alert is a widget system that allows the Streamer to display the chat pane contents directly within the video feed. This allows the Streamer to monitor both the output of their live stream and their Viewer conversations in one place, without having to manually show and hide the chat panel while they are live. These and other alert examples have become integral to the success of Streaming Services, and Viewers have come to expect them from their favorite Streamers.
Graphics for custom Overlays heretofore were provided either by the end user as local files or as preset templates hosted on a server by the third-party service. The templates can be customized into an almost infinite array of configurations. Additionally, Streamers often prefer to have different Overlay configurations for different games, as different games produce different graphical looks and feels that coordinate best with different Overlay settings. For these reasons, Overlay configurations often require considerable time, effort, and potentially some technical know-how to produce, all of which take away from time the Streamer could instead dedicate to monetizing their channel.
Alternatively, a Streamer can hire a graphic designer to produce custom Overlays for their channel. This usually requires a specialty in video game design or animation, very specific understanding of the market, potentially access to the Streamer's account on the third-party service, and knowledge of how to operate the third-party systems. This also requires an interested Streamer and designer to connect via job ads, referrals, or coincidence; while each of the aforementioned methods are valid, they do not provide a distribution channel through which designers can publish Overlay graphics for potential monetization, nor do they streamline the browsing, acquisition, and consumption of Overlay graphics by Streamers.